Meet the Team

Bo Yao

Lab Director

Leads research on inner speech, voice hearing, embodied cognition, adaptive environments, and biological and artificial intelligence.

Stephen Mander

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Develops machine-learning methods for detecting spontaneous inner speech from neurophysiological signals.

Guyu Shen

PhD Candidate

Investigates how abstract concepts are grounded in multimodal information and episodic memory.

Jiaxuan Chen

PhD Candidate

Examines how structural differences between Mandarin and English shape perspective and mental representation.

Yanxi Lu

PhD Candidate

Studies how culture and language shape emotional engagement during comprehension.

Laura Johnson

PhD Candidate

Uses computational models to study how expectations and psychological factors influence verbally induced hallucinations.

El Smith

PhD Candidate

Studies how environmental noise affects the development of inner speech and cognition in classroom settings.

Jiaqi Wang

PhD Candidate

Studies how visual-metaphor structure and concreteness shape conceptualisation and interpretation.

Eleanor Little

PhD Candidate

Investigates conditioned verbal hallucinations using signal detection, EEG, and computational modelling.

Abigail Petrsoric

PhD Candidate

Develops adaptive text displays that respond to eye movements to support efficient and engaging digital reading.

David Wheatley

PhD Candidate

Develops multimodal methods combining EEG and ultrasound tongue imaging to study spontaneous and ruminative inner speech.

Summer Rickard

S.T.A.R.S.

Supports research across the lab, with an interest in mind wandering and inner speech.

Brianna Munroe

S.T.A.R.S.

Investigates how verbal and visual thinking influence the linguistic categorisation of ambiguous stimuli.

Zara Rowe

S.T.A.R.S.

Briony Banks

Former Postdoc

Studied how language interacts with perception, action, memory, and multimodal communication.

Ryan Horsfall

Former Postdoc

Studied the behavioural, emotional, and neural mechanisms of inner speech before training as a clinical psychologist.

Jaydan Pratts

Former PhD Student

Studied the neural mechanisms and varieties of inner speech using neuroimaging meta-analysis and neurostimulation.

Olivia Mak

Former PhD Student

Studied predictive mechanisms in experimentally induced auditory-verbal hallucinations using behavioural and computational methods.